Anti-Insomnia Ads May Give You Nightmares

Help Remedies' odd dream recommendations

Pharma boutique Help Remedies is pitching its pain-med-free sleep aid (called "Help I Can't Sleep") with a series of extremely peculiar videos that address the problem of insomnia in a unique way. Instead of focusing on the efficacy of the product, the campaign goes in a more ethereal, hallucinatory direction—presenting odd little skits that act out different dreams you could be having that would ease the psychological burdens that might be keeping you awake. It's hard to explain—watch the nine videos below to see it in action. The ads are just bizarre. They include a person dressed as a dog; a woman having depressing sex on a girder with a guy who makes weird sounds with his mouth; lots of suggestive milking of cows; and a chef whose scabby face is constantly falling into his sausage mix. (The old Rozerem spots with Abe Lincoln and the beaver, which went down a similar path, seem downright staid by comparison.) Agencytwofifteen did the videos, and also created a Dream Recorder app, which purports to "suck dream liquid out of your brain," convert it to sentences and post it on Facebook or Twitter while you sleep. (Presumably it's not FDA-approved!) The ads will run in "sleep-adjacent venues," like hotel on-demand channels, airplane flights, late-night TV and on the Union Square screens of drug store Duane Reade. It's certainly an unusual approach, but you have to wonder about side effects. If the videos, plus the pills, do knock you out, aren't you liable to wake up screaming an hour later? Via PSFK.

A dream recommendation specially formulated for persons having trouble with authority figures.